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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/27319120">Just Another Need</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/FandomsUnite17/pseuds/FandomsUnite17'>FandomsUnite17</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Sanders Sides (Web Series)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Attempted Suicide, M/M, Prey Roman, Soft Vore, Suicidal Thoughts, Vore, pred virgil, prey Patton, prey logan, size shifting</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>In-Progress</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-11-01</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2021-01-03</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 21:34:56</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>7</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>16,869</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/27319120</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/FandomsUnite17/pseuds/FandomsUnite17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Virgil has always needed to siphon other people's energy to stay alive. If he went too long without siphoning, he would get ill, and after that, he would get weaker and weaker until there was nothing left of him at all. He's never liked his need to siphon, but it made it easier that Remus enjoyed being his siphonee. When he was accepted into the light sided, he knew he would have to tell someone. If he was going to stay on their side of the mindscape he had to siphon off of someone. So he'd decided to tell Patton. All went well until Thomas fell into a  weeks-long bought of depression and Patton lost not only his ability to affect Thomas, but also his abilities. Without Patton's abilities, Virgil would have to siphon off of someone else, but he was terrified of what the other two might think if they learned what he needed. Patton and Logan found Virgil unconscious and had to force Virgil to let them make him siphon off of Logan. </p>
<p>In the end, Virgil is forced to tell Logan and Roman both about his need to siphon, and they both take it much better than he'd anticipated.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Anxiety | Virgil Sanders/Logic | Logan Sanders</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>8</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>36</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>1. Chapter One</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Virgil sighed contentedly as he relaxed into the couch, letting one arm hang over the edge onto the floor. It had been too long since he’d done this. It had started to make him sick, so finally, he had buckled and asked Patton for help for the fourth time that month. He felt kinda bad having to ask for his help so often lately but since stress only speeds up the process he’d had to ask for help before he got too weak again. He shuddered at the memory of the last time he’d waited that long. That had gotten way out of control. He didn’t want to risk it getting that bad again. But of course, that led him back to his first predicament — he still felt bad having to ask for help yet again. And even further there was the problem of what the others thought about it. He still wasn’t sure exactly how much they knew about it, or if they really knew at all. They never talked about it, obviously, and usually, even if they did walk in while Virgil was using Patton to siphon they didn’t even notice. But all-in-all it was something he tried very hard to avoid talking about. I mean, he couldn’t speak for anyone else, but he knew at least he would be extremely uncomfortable if someone you weren’t terribly close to suddenly brought up the fact that they required nearly weekly sessions of having another person inside of them so they could siphon off their energy. Suddenly his train of thought was interrupted by a voice. “Hey, Virgil, have you seen Patton?”<br/>	He sat up slowly and tried to respond, but his words were overtaken by a small belch. He shot up a hand to cover it and turned bright red from ear-to-ear, subconsciously pressing a hand to his stomach. “Uh…”<br/>	Roman shot his gaze to the ceiling as his own face went slightly red. “Oh! Wow, it’s like that, ooookay. Uh, I’m just gonna… come back later.” With that, he scrambled out of the room and Virgil buried his face in the back of the couch and groaned.<br/>	“Ya alright, kiddo?”<br/>	“Yeah. It’s just… Roman… just walked in and…”<br/>	“Oh, he knows what’s goin’ on, huh?”<br/>	“Yeah. I just…” He groaned. “It was so miserably awkward!”<br/>	After a long moment, Patton spoke up again. “I still think you should tell them.”<br/>	“Yeah, I know you do, but you don’t see how they react every time they… see us.”<br/>	“I know I don’t, but I think once they got used to the idea…”<br/>	“I just don’t want to deal with all that, is that so terrible?!”<br/>	“No, it’s not, but… they’re finding out already on their own bit by bit and… I’m just afraid it’s gonna end up worse for you when they find out… but if you tell them now… maybe they won’t… I don’t know, be offended?”<br/>	Virgil sighed. He didn’t know what to do. Patton made a very good point — they were slowly finding out on their own, and the longer he waited the more likely they would be to hate him when they did find out… But he was terrified by the prospect of actually telling them. What would they think about it? About him? Would they think he was disgusting for needing this? Would they think he was weak for needing to siphon other people’s energy? “I just… don’t want them to think I’m gross.”<br/>	“They won’t! I never have, and I know!”<br/>	“Yeah, but you’re you! And they’re… them. If not Logan I know Roman’ll call it gross.”<br/>	“But what if he doesn’t?”<br/>	“Just DROP IT, OKAY?!” Patton whimpered inside him, and he immediately felt guilty. He’d never used his big voice while he was siphoning, he hadn’t even thought about how it would affect their side of things. How loud it must have just been. “Pat, I’m sorry… Just… I’m not ready.”<br/>	It took nearly four hours to siphon off all he needed. “Hey, Patton?”<br/>	“Hm?” He sounded drowsy.<br/>	“You awake?”<br/>	“M? Oh, yeah. I’m awake.”<br/>	“I, uh… I’m done.”<br/>	“Oh, done with the whole… what do you call it?”<br/>	“Siphoning. And yeah.” He was already in the bathroom, door locked in case Roman or Logan tried to come in without knocking. He had been able to force himself to throw up with perfect ease since the day he first formed. It seemed he was made just for this. Siphoning. And he hated it. He picked up the now released Patton and set him on the floor, where he swiftly grew back to normal, covered head-to-toe in all kinds of fluids and half-digested goo. “Nice to see you again from the outside.” Patton was smiling, but he couldn’t find it in himself to force one. He muttered a quick thank you and left, relocking the door behind him before he closed it. He was met face-to-face with Roman. Oh, not him again! They both looked away, one at the ceiling and one at the wall.<br/>	“Uh, I was just, um… Is the bathroom open?”<br/>	“Uh, Patton’s, uh… shower.” He left before Roman had a chance to respond and went straight to his room, where he plopped down on his living room couch and groaned.</p>
<p>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</p>
<p>Virgil’s head snapped up when he heard a knock at his door. His heart raced as he slowly made his way downstairs to answer it but he found himself hesitating at the door. Who was it? What did they want from him? Was it Roman? Was he going to interrogate him? “Virgil, it’s Patton.” He relaxed instantly. Patton he could handle. Right?<br/>	He slowly opened the door and none other than Patton himself was standing there. “Hey.”<br/>	“Hey there. I’ve been worried about you… You just haven’t come out in a while.”<br/>	“Oh, yeah. I’m fine…”<br/>	“But?”<br/>	He hesitated. “I just don’t wanna face Roman again.”<br/>	“Oh.” He was silent for a long time before he finally decided what to do. “Well… can I come in and hang with you there then?”<br/>	Virgil glanced back nervously. “I don’t think that’s a good idea. First, I’m sure you remember what it did to you guys last time you were in there, plus you can’t take two steps in there without being terrified of my decorations and all that.” Patton hung his head because he knew that was true, he just didn’t want to leave Virgil alone. Then again, a part of him reminded himself, he probably enjoyed being alone. He shook the thought away as soon as it came. Of course, he didn’t want to be alone! No one did! Not for five days! He just wanted him to feel better. Oh, who was he kidding, that wasn’t why he came here and he knew it. He probably wouldn’t have come at all if Logan hadn’t encouraged him to.<br/>	“Virgil… the truth is, you’ve been in your room so much without coming out even once that… it’s doing… something to Thomas.”<br/>	“What?!”<br/>	“He’s… acting really off. And I can’t influence him at all. And the worst part is he’s not taking care of himself. Logan says he thinks it’s because you’ve been in here non-stop so long that… he kinda… broke in a way… He says he thinks it’s… depression. And we can fix it! If… if you can come out for a while, but… Virgil, I can’t just not influence him… I can’t do anything. I can’t shape-shift, I can’t summon things, I can’t… do anything… Which means I can’t… change size either… And we don’t know how long this will last…”</p>
<p>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</p>
<p>Virgil rolled over on the couch, groaning miserably. Everything hurt. Everything hurt so bad. He needed to siphon. But Patton hadn’t gotten the use of his powers back. He had to wait.  But how much longer could he wait? He managed to get himself sitting upright and stared blankly. He’d been staying in the commons ever since Patton lost his powers in an attempt to help Thomas. Logan assured him that it was working but he was hesitant to believe him. Patton still couldn’t use his powers or influence Thomas in any way, and it had been three days already. Virgil took a deep breath and pushed against the back of the couch, having to try way too hard just to stand up, and the room spun so badly he got tunnel vision. He brought a hand to his head and tried to take a step forward… Thud. <br/>Patton and Logan rushed in, being the only two that had been in the commons and heard the sound, and immediately Patton dropped to his knees beside Virgil and turned him over. “Oh, no.”<br/>	Logan knelt down beside him and looked him over. “He appears… ill. That simply doesn’t make sense, we are incapable of catching any type of illness individually…”<br/>	“This… this isn’t a normal illness, Logan…” Patton brushed some loose hair out of Virgil’s face, then pulled back his hoodie sleeve and sighed. “I knew it…” His arm was covered in lavender veining. Logan’s eyes widened and he looked over at Patton in question. “He didn’t want to tell you guys yet… Can we try to wake him up first?” So after numerous tries that took much longer than anticipated, Virgil finally blinked back awake and Patton sat him up against the couch. “Virgil? Can you hear me?” He nodded. “Okay, good… Virgil, you know what this means, right?” <br/>He sighed and nodded. “I know… but you…” He had to pause and catch his breath. “Can’t… shrink…”<br/>Patton looked at him meaningfully and gestured towards Logan. “No, but he can.”<br/>	“He won’t want to.”<br/>	“But what if he’s willing to anyway? I didn’t want to the first time either…”<br/>	“I know, but…”<br/>	“Please…?” After a long moment, Virgil sighed and nodded, defeated. “It’s okay if I tell him?” Patton had a hard time not grinning at how proud he was when Virgil nodded in confirmation. “Thank you, Virgil. I know this isn’t easy.” He smiled at him gently and finally turned to Logan. “Logan, Virgil… is sick, but not in a normal way. He’s sick in a way only he can get sick. You see, Virgil can’t… hold his own energy. So every week or so, he has to… basically, take a little energy from someone else…” Logan looked confused, but he nodded anyway. “And how he does that is… uh, what do you call it?”<br/>	“Siphoning.”<br/>	“Yeah, that. Siphoning. Well, if he doesn’t siphon enough… he gets sick, like this. And if he doesn’t siphon when he gets sick… he’ll just get weaker and weaker until… there’s nothing left…”<br/>	“What exactly does this siphoning involve?”<br/>	Patton glanced at Virgil and he nodded. “Siphoning is… someone else shrinks down really small and…” He forced on a smile. “And he has to… swallow them. And then he can siphon off the energy he needs and he just throws them back up.” Patton looked at Logan nervously, and Logan stared back with wide eyes. <br/>You could see the cogs turning as he pierced it all together. “You have been allowing him to siphon off of you… correct?” Patton nodded. Logan was silent for another moment. Then the last piece clicked into place. “But since you have not had access to your shape-shifting, you have been unable to change size."<br/>"And if he doesn't siphon…"<br/>Logan nodded, eyes narrowing with determination. "It would be disastrous if Thomas lost his anxiety completely… So I suppose he will have to siphon."<br/>"So you're willing to do it?"<br/>"It's less a matter of will and more of necessity, being that you do not have access to your abilities and I am currently the only other being aware of this predicament. But to answer your question, yes, I suppose I am."<br/>Patton grinned at Virgil. "See? Wha'd I tell you? No one's calling you gross or weird or anything!"<br/>Virgil shrugged weakly in response and Patton and Logan looked at each other. "I suppose then it is now or never."<br/>Virgil looked up towards his voice, barely holding his head upright. “You… you mean you’re actually… actually gonna…” He stopped to catch his breath.<br/>“I am going to allow you to siphon my energy, yes.”<br/>Virgil sighed and reached out a hand blindly. Patton grabbed it. “Hey, Virgil. Did you hear that? You’re gonna be okay. So you gotta stay awake, alright?” He nodded weakly, but he already couldn’t see and he barely had the strength to keep his eyes open, let alone lift an arm or even a finger. Patton was the only thing holding his hand up. A few minutes later he felt a hand on the side of his face and heard a half-audible voice. “Virgil… you gotta… Logan’s… gotta open your mouth…” He obeyed and a moment later felt the familiar yet numb sensation of a miniature person crawling over his tongue. The tiny form of Logan slipped to the back of his mouth and pressed against his throat. He tried weakly to swallow, but he couldn’t get his body to work with him. Numbly, he felt something squeeze his hand. Warm? Was it… someone’s hand? He tried again to swallow and again he couldn’t. So he gave himself a few short moments and then he gathered every ounce of strength he could muster and swallowed once, twice. He finally managed one last weak swallow and collapsed.</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0002"><h2>2. Chapter Two</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“-gil? Virgil? Virgil? Are you there?”<br/>	“Patton?” His voice scraped out weakly as if his lungs had turned to sandpaper.<br/>	“Virgil! You’re awake!”<br/>	He groaned and forced his eyes open. “Yeah. How long have I been out? I feel like a dumpster, on fire, in the middle of a tornado.”<br/>	“It’s been… seven hours…”<br/>	“Seven hours?! Seven?! Hours?!”<br/>	“If you would kindly lower your voice that would be greatly appreciated.”<br/>	Virgil flinched and had to wait for a moment to register who the voice had come from. “Right, yeah. Sorry, whatever…” It just now occurred to him that if he had been unconscious for seven hours… Logan had been stuck in there the entire time.<br/>	Patton gave him a strange look. “Are you alright…?”<br/>	“Oh, yeah, I was…” He gestured to himself. “Uh, Logan. I was talking to Logan.”<br/>	“Is he alright?”<br/>	Virgil took a deep breath. Patton looked way too worried. “Yeah, I think so. I mean… he sounded normal?”<br/>	“Could you… do you think you could ask him?”<br/>	“Um… I guess? Uh…” He sat up on the couch and took another deep breath. “Uh, Logan, Patton wanted to know… ugh, how do I word this? He wants to make sure… you’re okay.”<br/>	“Oh. I do not understand why he would be concerned about such a matter. I am in excellent health.”<br/>	Virgil let out a snort. “He meant mentally.”<br/>	“I still do not see why he would be concerned about-”<br/>	“He’s just tryna ask if you’ve gone crazy in there or not!”<br/>	“Ah, of course. In that effect, yes, I am quite sound of mind.”<br/>	Virgil shook his head and finally answered Patton. “He’s perfectly fine…”<br/>	“But…”<br/>	Virgil groaned. “I still can’t- I mean, I- I’m not even- I don’t think I could even walk on my own yet! And I just don’t know... I’m not even nearly halfway done siphoning and it’s been seven hours already?!”<br/>	“All that really matters is that you’re okay, right?”<br/>	“No! I’m not! I’m not okay! This is gonna take at least another day! Probably longer! What happens when he gets hungry or needs the bathroom or something?!”<br/>	“Actually, I have been meaning to address that topic.”<br/>	“Oh, no. Are you hungry, do you need the bathroom, or is it both?”<br/>	Logan hesitated. “Both.”<br/>	“Oh, shit.” Virgil dug his fingers into his hair. “What am I supposed to do, Patton?!”<br/>	“Okay, what does he need?”<br/>	“Both! He said both!” Virgil groaned weakly and closed his eyes. “Why do we have to be having a crisis now?!”<br/>	“I don’t understand why this would be classified as a crisis. Can you not simply evict me and then re-consume me and continue the siphoning process?”<br/>	“No, I can’t! If I stop siphoning early it kicks me back to how bad I was before I started. Another words, if I spit you out now, I’ll be spitting back all the energy I just siphoned and I’ll go right back to being unconcious!”<br/>	“Oh. Then I suppose this situation is rather… concerning…”<br/>	“Yeah, no kidding. So how are we supposed to be doing this?”<br/>	“Well…” Patton glanced down awkwardly. “It’ll be humiliating, but do you think diapers…?”<br/>	“Seriously? You’re kidding me. Diapers.”<br/>	“I-I mean, I know it’s really humiliating for him, but it’s that or he just… goes and has to sit in it…”<br/>	Before Virgil could respond he heard Logan muttering. “Diapers. Of course. Why not throw the last shred of dignity I have out the metaphorical window… Although unfortunately, that is the best, and only reasonable, course of action…”<br/>	“What, you’re actually agreeing with him? You’re seriously gonna put on diapers?”<br/>	Logan hesitated before finally answering. “Yes. I don’t know of any better alternative, so… yes.”<br/>	“Okay, wow. Solves that problem I guess. Then what about food?”<br/>	“Food was never a concern. I can simply summon anything I desire.”<br/>	“Oh, right! Duh! I keep forgetting you guys can just summon stuff.”<br/>	“You have mentioned previously that while you cannot summon anything you do have a different ability, but you have never spoken what this ability is. Would you be willing to divulge that information?”<br/>	“I wouldn’t call it an ability, and no. No, not… not yet at least.”<br/>	“What’s not yet?”<br/>	Virgil flinched. He almost forgot Patton was still standing there. “He was asking what my other ability is.”<br/>	“And you told him not yet, so maybe sometime you’d be willing to tell us?”<br/>	“Maybe. I don’t know. Not anytime soon if I ever do, I know that much.”<br/>	“Well… that’s okay, just tell us whenever you’re comfortable to.”<br/>	Virgil took a deep breath and stared him down. “And if I never am?”<br/>	“Well then, we’ll be disappointed for sure, but we won’t force you to say anything you don’t want to…”<br/>	It was silent for a long time, then Virgil finally turned to the back of the couch, laid back down, and grumbled quietly. “I’m goin’ back to sleep.”<br/>	“Alright… I’ll be in my room if you need me…” Virgil waited until he heard Patton leave the room before closing his eyes and letting himself succumb to how weak he still felt.<br/>	When Virgil woke next the first thing he heard was a quick, repetitive muttering, and it took him a solid five minutes before he realized that the muttering was Logan. Virgil pulled himself upright on the couch and stared blankly at the wall as his vision spun and slowly steadied. “Oh, probably not good.” He took a deep breath. He felt numb still from lingering sleep.<br/>	Suddenly Logan’s muttering stopped abruptly. “Virgil, you’re awake. May I ask what happened that is ‘probably not good’?”<br/>	“I’m just dizzy. Really dizzy.”<br/>	“Aside from that, do you have any other symptoms?”<br/>	“Uh…” Now that he was waking up all the way, he noticed he felt significantly better. He still had an awful headache, yes, and he still felt weak, and he was still pretty sore, but he still felt better. “Not a lot, actually. Still not normal, but… ya know, not basically dying anymore, so that’s a plus.” Logan was silent, so Virgil decided to push his limits a little and try standing up. And to his surprise, it was working! As long as he kept his eyes closed. But just when he was about to take a step, he heard a loud voice and opened his eyes, immediately getting hit with such bad vertigo that he fell straight forwards. “Where’s Logan? I haven’t seen him all day.”<br/>	Thunk! He hit the hardwood floor face-down. “Ow! Dammit, Princey, back off!”<br/>	Roman grumbled something angrily and stormed out of the room. Slowly Virgil managed to pull himself off the floor and sit on his knees, and just when his vision steadied again Patton rushed into the room. “I was just comin’ to check on you when I heard someone screaming, is everything alright?”<br/>	“Virgil, what happened?”<br/>	“Uh…” He blinked for a moment, trying to decide who to answer first. “Um… Yes, and no. I was trying to walk a bit to gauge how I’m doing and Roman just came walking in asking where…” He gestured violently to his stomach. “He is. Can that guy ever come in at a time that’s convenient?”<br/>	“Well, maybe you should tell him too… I mean, now that Logan knows too and he’s okay with it, maybe you could tell Roman too?”<br/>	“Yeah, right. And who says he’s okay with it at all, anyway? That's what he said, but… is that what he thinks?”<br/>	“Logan wouldn’t lie, just for the sake of lying…”<br/>	“But he would if it’s for Thomas. He said it’s too dangerous for Thomas to lose his anxiety completely, so isn’t that the only reason he would be doing this? To keep Thomas safe? And if that means doing something he doesn’t want to, would he not do whatever to keep Thomas safe anyway? Whether he wanted to or not? And if he thought that saying he didn’t want to would hinder us letting him do it anyway, then, of course, he’d lie… for Thomas’s sake.”<br/>	“FALSEHOOD!”<br/>	“Ow! Geez!”<br/>	“I am offended you believe I would do such a thing. And you are gravely mistaken if you think I am doing this for only Thomas’s sake. While it is true that Thomas does need his anxiety to a point, and he would suffer greatly if he were to lose you, I am allowing you to siphon my energy for your sake alone.”<br/>	“Yeah, right. You’re not doing this for Thomas at all.”<br/>	“I am, partially. It is not my responsibility to ensure Thomas’s safety, that responsibility falls to you, so in aiding you I suppose I am aiding Thomas as well. But my intentions are solely to protect you.”<br/>	“Why would you care that much anyway?”<br/>	“Because, Virgil… You’ll have to excuse my bluntness, this is not my area of expertise… But Virgil, I care so much about you because you are the only one who is without fail never… upset to see me. Even if you disagree with me, you never seem to be disappointed that I’m there. So, to reiterate my point, yes, I am allowing you to siphon my energy solely for your benefit. It is benefitting Thomas in the process, but my intentions are to help you. Now if you wouldn’t mind, I have a request.”<br/>	Virgil was still reeling from Logan’s previous statement and he had to pause for a second before he registered what had been said. “Uh, what did you want?”<br/>	“I would like to request that you eat something.”<br/>	“You want me to eat. That’s all? I mean, I can, but wouldn’t that be… I don’t know… messy? For you?”<br/>	“Precisely.”<br/>	“You want me to eat… so you can be covered in… whatever it’s called at that stage…”<br/>	“Bolus’, yes. I have decided to take this situation as an opportunity to examine how your digestive system acts.”<br/>	Virgil froze. Why on earth would he want to know about something like that? “Why...?”<br/>	“I have been creating a hypothesis that Thomas’s view of each of us personally affects our bodies. I started this theory while I was considering Deceit’s- er, Janus’s snake-like qualities, which he most likely possesses because Thomas made the mental connection between deceit, or trickery, and the serpent introduced in Genesis 3:1. After considering that connection I began wondering how heavily Thomas’s perception of us affects our bodies. The first thing I noticed is how each of our hair rests differently, even when we don’t alter it on purpose. I also noticed that our physical needs vary. For example, Roman eats much more than he drinks. He also needs the restroom more often than you, me, or Patton. However, unlike Roman, Patton seems to need the restroom the least, and he tends to eat sweet foods more than anything else. I need the restroom almost as little as Patton, but I tend to get thirsty much quicker than is average; much quicker, I’ve found, than you, Roman, or Patton. And you seem to have the closest ranges to Thomas out of all of us, which makes me wonder if he relates more to you than to any of us. Which makes complete sense, since you influence him in a much more direct way. And that line of reasoning led to me growing curious about how our internal systems differ between one another’s and in comparison to an average human’s systems.”<br/>	“So what you’re saying is you want me to eat something because… you wanna see... how I digest things?”<br/>	“Precisely, yes. You mentioned previously that the siphoning process will take another day, possibly longer. It has been five hours since you said this, which means that even if the siphoning process is quicker than anticipated, there will still be much more time than the approximate eight hours it takes for the full digestion process to complete.”<br/>	“Okay, not weird at all. But whatever, have your fun I guess. You’ll just have to give me a sec… really dizzy…” He slowly pulled himself to his feet, keeping his eyes closed all the while, and he felt a hand on his arm when he tried to take a step. He cracked his eyes open very slowly and let his vision steady. It was Patton who was holding on to him. He was still here? That guy was surprisingly good at being quiet. He nodded silently at him and took a step forwards. His vision leaped but he surprisingly didn’t feel very weak. His legs weren’t shaking, he didn’t feel unsteady, he just felt very dizzy. So he held onto Patton’s shoulder and kept walking. Finally, he got to the kitchen and Patton forced him to sit down at the table.<br/>	“You sit down and let me get you something. You were coming in here to get something to eat, right?” He nodded in answer. “Then I’m getting it for you. What do you want?”<br/>	“Uh… I really don’t care. But you know I can manage myself.”<br/>	“Yeah, I know. But I want to help. And you can’t stop me.”<br/>	“Fine, fine.”<br/>	Patton smiled at him and grabbed the tub of leftovers from the fridge, popping it into the microwave. Once it was done he got out a fork and handed them both to Virgil. “So Logan asked you to eat something? Is that what you guys were talking about?”<br/>	“Yeah. Apparently he’s doing some experiment or something.”<br/>	“Testing a hypothesis.”<br/>	“Yeah, that.” At Patton’s odd look, he quickly explained. “He said it’s testing a hypothesis, but you know…” He shrugged.<br/>	“So how are you feeling? Do you think the siphoning will take much longer?”<br/>	Virgil groaned. “I’m… okay, I guess. I’m still really dizzy and lightheaded and stuff, but I don’t feel super weak anymore, so I’m… making progress… and as for the siphoning…” He sighed. “I have no idea when I’ll be done. It’s gonna be at least another day I think… Definitely longer if it keeps going this slow. It’ll probably speed up though now that I’ve gotten back on my feet at least.”<br/>	“Well, that’s good you’re feeling better. You… really scared me when we found you like that… We almost lost you…”<br/>	“I forgot it actually got that bad…”<br/>	They were quiet for a long time before Patton finally spoke up. “Virgil, I really think you should tell Roman. I know you’re worried about what he’d think about it, but what if for some reason both me and Logan can’t use our powers? I… don’t know if I could handle seeing you like that again…”<br/>	“There’s no reason you and Logan both would lose your powers at the same time. And besides, if you did, at least one of you would eventually get them back, so I just suck it up and deal until you do.”<br/>	“But what if we don’t get them back in time? What if you already need to siphon when we lose them?”<br/>	“Then let me die! I would honestly rather die than ask him for help. I would never hear the end of it! Either he’d be terrified of me or he’d never take me seriously again, and I can’t… live with that… I already didn’t want… Logan to know. But he never acted like he cared one way or another about me, so I can handle it if he decides he doesn’t like me. But Roman… never liked me. And to be honest, I think he still doesn’t. But for once I’ve been able to be in the same room as him lately and not have to worry about being attacked or insulted every time I open my mouth. And I would really rather keep it that way. So thanks for being concerned and all, but hell no.”<br/>	Patton’s face dropped like a fifty-pound weight. “Virgil-”<br/>	“No, Patton, I don’t wanna hear it, okay?! I’m sick and tired of you always trying to convince me that everything’s fine! I know you guys don’t completely hate me anymore and we had the whole, like, bonding thing, but that doesn’t mean he even tried to start liking me. Just because you guys agreed to not hate me doesn't mean any of you actually like me. And I’m sick and tired of you pretending everyone does! Okay?! Just shut up!” With that he stood and left, taking the rest of his leftovers with him. He stormed straight into the bathroom and locked the door behind him, then sank to the floor against it. He was sick and tired of it. Of Patton. Of the constant cheeriness. Of this damn siphoning. Of everything! He was tired of the whole thing! And he was definitely tired of how long this siphoning was taking. Another words, how long Logan was hearing his every sound. Thankfully Logan wasn’t saying a word, and that reminded him that while Logan could hear everything he said, he could also hear everything Logan said right now too. Still, it was beyond mortifying that Logan had gotten a front-row seat to that outburst. Before he knew it, he was shaking, struggling to bring the fork to his mouth to finish eating. He just couldn’t wait to yell back another day, could he?! Just another day and the siphoning would be over, or almost over, and then he could have talked to him alone! Why did Patton have to bring that up again anyway?! He knew Virgil didn’t want to, so why wouldn’t he just drop it already?! Logan knew now, wasn’t that enough for him?! Why did Roman have to know too?! Why did he care anyway? Why did he care about him at all, except for the fact that Thomas needed him? He knew they all love Thomas, but since when did he decide to like him? And Logan now too was claiming earlier that he liked him? As a person? He just didn’t get it! It was times like now that he wished he was still back with Remus. As much as he despised everything about Remus, he always let him siphon off him. He even went so far as to say he enjoyed it. But more than anything he acted like it was completely normal. Like it wasn’t weird and disgusting and he wasn’t weak or pathetic. It was just… something he needed. Like any of them need anything. Just like they all needed to eat, and like Janus needed things to keep him warm. He just needed things to keep him alive. And Remus, despite all of the terrible aspects of himself, understood that completely. He missed that. He really missed that. Clink. He blinked and realized his fork had just hit the empty plate. He had been mindlessly eating as he spiraled into his thoughts. He sniffled and blinked, hard. His eyes were getting sore. No, he wasn’t going to get emotional. Virgil hit his head roughly against the door he was leaning against. He was fine. He was normal. He wasn’t weird. He wasn’t wrong. He’s exactly what he’s supposed to be. He’s supposed to need this. And that doesn’t make him messed up, it just makes him… Not different, he was normal. He was normal. It just made him… He let out a choked breath and with horror realized that it was a quiet sob. He was crying. No, no! He wiped at his face furiously and found his hands coming back smudged. Pulling himself to his feet, he jumped in front of the mirror and his shoulders dropped. His vision swayed and spun before letting him see himself. His face was streaked with black. Of course. Of course, it was. As if enough things hadn’t gone wrong, now his makeup was ruined too! Shaking, he grabbed a wipe and managed to remove it all, crying all the while. After a few minutes, he dropped back to his spot against the door, and finally, it got quiet. The muttering had stopped. Wait, muttering? He hadn’t even noticed it until it stopped just now, but at some point, Logan had started muttering to himself again. Just when Logan tried to speak to him, his voice was drowned out by someone knocking on the door he was leaning against. <br/>	“Um, Virgil?”<br/>	“What do you want, Patton?”<br/>	“Um… I just… I wanted to tell you that I’m so, so sorry for pushing you like that! It’s you that needs the whatever-it’s-called, so you’re the one who should get to decide who knows about it! I’m so sorry I’ve been so forceful. I just hate to see you hurt and… I hate the thought of you… disappearing.”<br/>	“Well, maybe that’s where we’re different. Maybe I don’t hate the idea. Maybe, just maybe, it’d be better than this BULLSHIT!!” He yanked his hood tight around his head and plugged his ears. He could hear Patton trying to talk to him still, but he didn’t wanna hear whatever he was saying. He was sick and tired of it. Of all of it. And right now all he could think about was that he wished he could just disappear. He wished he’d never agreed to siphon off of Logan in the first place. Couldn’t Thomas just create a new Anxiety? It was his own mind, after all. Of course, he could. He was just as replaceable as anything else Thomas ever made. So why couldn’t he just… go? What was stopping him?</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0003"><h2>3. Chapter Three</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“Patton!” Logan raced down the hall, chest heaving. “Patton! Patton, it’s Virgil!” He was covered in bodily fluids from head-to-toe, but he didn’t care about that for a second. “Patton! Roman! Anyone, please! He’s not gonna survive if we don’t do something! He won’t swallow me, Patton, please!” He crashed to a stop in the common area’s living room, where Roman was sitting on the couch. There was a discarded TV remote on the floor and he was staring at Logan frozen, eyes wide and jaw dropped open. Before either of them could say anything, Patton rushed in from the common area kitchen.<br/>
“Logan?! How are you-?!” His face twisted into an expression of horror. “No, where’s Virgil?! Tell me he’s okay, Logan!”<br/>
Logan shook his head, face dripping and shoulders shaking with sobs. “He’s not! He’s not responding to me at all! He refused to swallow me again! He just-” He paused to wipe at his face. “He just threw me up and he wouldn’t talk to me! He refused to say a word to me! Please, you have to talk sense into him! He’s trying to kill himself!”<br/>
Patton rushed to the bathroom without a word and flung the door open. Virgil was lying unconscious on the floor, not moving an inch. “Virgil…” His voice was clogged with sobs, barely over a whisper.<br/>
“Patton, focus.” Logan stepped into the bathroom with Patton, Roman right behind them.<br/>
“Wait, guys, what’s going on?”<br/>
They ignored him. “I know, I know. I know I need to focus but Logan, what do we do?!”<br/>
Logan took a deep breath and finally wiped his face dry. “I doubt he is capable of swallowing out of will at the moment, and even if he were, he was adamant about refusing to do so. Which means we will have to force him. I understand that you are stressed right now, so I will have to be the one to force him to swallow. I don’t mean any offense but I don’t think you would be able to learn how to so quickly and in a stressful environment.”<br/>
Patton simply nodded. “But then if you’re gonna do that, and I still don’t have my powers back, who’s he gonna siphon?”<br/>
They both turned to the doorway, where Roman was staring at them with one eyebrow raised. “What is going on? Why are you all looking at me like that…? What is it you want me to do?”<br/>
Five minutes later Roman was two inches tall, sitting against the back of Virgil’s mouth while Logan and Patton tried to force him to swallow. “Keep his mouth shut and don’t let go of his nose, do not let him breathe. Okay?” Patton nodded firmly, tears rolling down his face. Logan nodded back, then tipped Virgil’s head back against the wall he was leaning against and began rubbing Virgil’s neck on either side right under his jaw. They did this for about five minutes before Virgil’s unconscious form finally swallowed, and then instinctively swallowed a few more times until Roman was all the way down. Immediately Patton and Logan pulled back.<br/>
“Did that work?”<br/>
Logan summoned a popsicle stick and used it to open Virgil’s mouth and press his tongue flat. “Yes, it did.”<br/>
After a very long silence, Patton spoke up again. “Do you think he’s gonna be okay?”<br/>
“We will see. But in my personal opinion, I believe so, yes.”<br/>
“Okay… Let’s bring him back to the couch.”<br/>
Logan nodded and grabbed Virgil’s shoulders while Patton grabbed his legs and they brought him back to the living room. As soon as Virgil was safely on the couch, Patton sprung to his head and kneeled down in front of him. “Are you planning to remain out here?” Patton nodded silently. “Would you come and inform me when anything changes?”<br/>
“Yeah. I’ll get you.” Logan nodded and left, and Patton watched him go, then turned back to Virgil and carefully brushed Virgil’s bangs out of his face. “I’m so sorry. I’ll never push you again. Ever. I’ll never even talk to you again if it would help! Just please, Virgil…” He sniffled and tears began creeping down his face. “Please come back. Please. I’m so, so sorry…”</p><p>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</p><p>Virgil slowly opened his eyes. He couldn’t see. He couldn’t see anything right. Everything was blurry and warped. Where was he? The pain set in, and he groaned and curled in on himself. Everything hurt! Why?! He could hear a voice somewhere nearby. Someone was saying something. Then he felt a hand on his arm — was it a hand? — and he flinched away from it. It hurt! He swung an arm blindly in the direction he had been touched from. No one was allowed to touch him! It hurt! The touch hurt! Everything hurt! He squeezed his eyes shut and huddled into himself, shaking. What happened to him? Where was he? He heard a muffled sound nearby and groaned. Sound hurt too! Why?! He pressed his face into the couch and cried and his vision started to go black. Make it stop, make it stop! It hurt! It hurt!</p><p>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------</p><p>Who was touching him? Someone had their hand on his arm. He opened his eyes and found Patton knelt down beside him. “Are you feeling better this time?”<br/>
He blinked. This time? Oh, he must have passed out. “Yeah. I am. What on earth happened?”<br/>
Patton immediately started crying. “I am so sorry, Virgil! I’m so, so sorry! I’ll never push you like that again, I promise! I’ll never try to make you do something you don’t wanna do ever again!”<br/>
“Okay, okay, but what actually happened?”<br/>
Patton sniffled. “I’m so sorry, it was all my fault!”<br/>
“Patton!”<br/>
“You tried to kill yourself! You threw Logan back up and he said you refused to swallow him again! He said you were trying to kill yourself! I am so, so sorry I made you feel that awful! I never meant to do that to you!” His thoughts were starting to come back to him as he remembered what had happened. What he’d done. Why he’d done it. So he’d failed. He was still here. “Logan helped me force you to swallow after you were unconscious. I had to pin your nose and mouth shut and he did something to your throat…” He tried and failed to hold back a sob. “It’s all my fault…”<br/>
“Wait, wait… Patton, you said Logan helped you, so… If you were both on the outside, then… who…?”<br/>
Patton hung his head. “I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean for him to find out. He just- he was there, and we didn’t have anyone else, and we couldn’t just not do anything! We didn’t know what else to do, and he followed us so he found out on his own, and we just weren’t thinking, we completely forgot to not talk about it directly, and I just was so scared that you’d never wake up-”<br/>
“Patton, shut up. Who did you make me swallow?”<br/>
Patton hung his head. “I’m sorry… We…” He took a deep breath and finally answered. “Roman. We made you swallow Roman.”<br/>
Virgil’s face dropped and he very slowly sat up and looked down at his stomach. “Roman?!”<br/>
“Oh, you finally noticed me. You’d think I’d be hard to miss.”<br/>
“Oh, god. Oh, no. No. No, no, no, no. This is not good. This is anything but good. Of all people?! How did he figure it out?! You guys could have been more careful, you could have had me swallow literally anyone else! Why not Remus?! I don’t really like him, but he already knew at least!”<br/>
Patton responded, but his voice was drowned out by Roman’s angry one. “You’re kidding me! Are you seriously telling me you would rather have him in here?! You would rather have his commentary stuck in your head than mine?! You cannot be serious!”<br/>
“Yeah! I am serious!”<br/>
Roman sputtered out angry, offended sounds. “Y-Y-You cannot- How?! How could you possibly prefer him to me?!”<br/>
“I don’t! I don’t like him at all! I just prefer siphoning off of him! Because he likes it! Because he’s never once thought I was gross, or weird! Because he doesn’t care about it one way or another! Because he treats me like I’m normal! Like the siphoning is just like any other need! Like how Deceit gets cold easily, he always treated it like me needing to siphon was just normal! Like it’s not disgusting, or stupid, or weak, or pathetic! Like it doesn’t freak out everyone that finds out about it! Like it doesn’t make people scared of me, like it doesn’t make you guys hate me! He was just casual about it, okay?! Like I could just walk up to him and be like, hey I need to siphon, and he would just be like, okay cool, and that was it! He never had to make it a big deal! Because to him me needing to siphon just didn’t matter! And I just want it to not matter again! Because maybe if it doesn’t matter enough, maybe I’ll stop needing it, and maybe… maybe I can, I don’t know, finally be normal? Finally belong somewhere?!” It was then that Virgil realized he had started crying at some point, and he was shaking now with small sobs. “I prefer siphoning off of Remus because he was the only one that didn’t make me feel worthless because of this stupid siphoning. And I thought… maybe if I just don’t siphon… maybe I could just… fall asleep… and Thomas could make a new Anxiety. One that didn’t need to siphon off of other’s energy. One that wasn’t so broken…” Virgil collapsed against Patton, who was sitting beside him on the couch now and had pulled him into a tight hug. He had never expressed any of that out loud. He had never actually said what he was feeling about this before.<br/>
Roman was completely silent, but Patton hugged him even tighter and spoke to him softly. “We had no idea you’ve been feeling this way. But Virgil, there’s nothing about you that’s broken. We all love you whether you need to siphon or not.”<br/>
“Your personal needs do not affect your value as a part of Thomas.” Virgil looked up at Logan, who was standing in the doorway to the kitchen across the room, long since cleaned of the fluids he’d been covered in. Had he been there the whole time? Had he heard everything? Then again, Virgil thought, Roman and Patton had both heard the whole thing, Logan might as well have too.<br/>
“Virgil…”<br/>
“Don’t. Just… don’t, Roman…”<br/>
“Virgil, just hear me out. Please.”<br/>
Logan stepped closer and looked Virgil in the eyes. “Virgil, it may be beneficial to you to hear his opinion. I doubt it is anything terribly negative.”<br/>
Virgil took a deep breath, looked at Logan, then down at his stomach, and sighed. “Fine. Just spit it out.”<br/>
“Virgil, I can’t honestly tell you that I don’t find this… purely disgusting. But! But I don’t… think any… less of you now that I know… you need this. If anything this is certainly better than why I thought you’ve been doing this.”<br/>
“Why did you think I was swallowing people? For fun?”<br/>
“Well, it’s kind of ridiculous now that I know the true reason, but I thought… since as far as I knew you’d only ever, ya know, with Patton… I thought it was like… some sort of sick kink? Or something?”<br/>
Virgil’s face and stomach dropped simultaneously. “You thought it was sexual?!”<br/>
“W-Well, what was I supposed to think?! All I had to go off of was that every time I saw you like that you looked completely blissed out. Like disturbingly so. H-How was I supposed to know it was just some need?! It’s not like anyone was explaining any of this to me!”<br/>
Before he could respond, Logan spoke up. “Um, Virgil, he thought… that your siphoning was a sexual activity?”<br/>
Virgil groaned. “Apparently, yeah! He thought it was a kink.”<br/>
“Now hold on a moment, they don’t need to know what I thought!”<br/>
“He thought that you and Patton were using vore as a means to relieve sexual tension…?” Logan was looking paler than usual.<br/>
“Yeah. I know. Listen, can we change the subject? This is all starting to make me nauseous.”<br/>
Patton nodded almost violently. “That’s a great idea! Let’s change the subject!”<br/>
“So you’re just ignoring me now?”<br/>
“Oh, I wasn’t ignoring you, I was just telling them anyway and I figured you could piece together that that was answer enough.”<br/>
“Are you saying that I’m stupid?!”<br/>
“No, I’m saying you’re oblivious. But stupid works too.”<br/>
Roman screamed something back at him, but he was trying to block it out to listen to whatever Patton was trying to tell him. “Maybe let’s try to be positive, alright?”<br/>
Virgil narrowed his eyes in response. “Yeah, sure, I’ll just do that. ‘Cause that’s so easy for me.” He groaned. “I wish you had just let me die. What would it have hurt? Thomas made me, he can make a new Anxiety. He might need Anxiety but he doesn’t need me. He could replace me in a second. I could just stop siphoning anytime and Thomas could just make a new Anxiety and everything would just move on like nothing happened!”<br/>
Before anyone could say anything, Logan stepped up to him and looked him dead in the eyes. “If you were to refuse to siphon again and we were for whatever reason unable to force you to do so… I…” He took a quick but deep breath. “I would never ‘move on’. Thomas may not need you specifically as his anxiety, but…”<br/>
“I think what he’s trying to say is that even though Thomas could make a new Anxiety, it wouldn’t be you. And it just wouldn’t be the same here without you…”<br/>
“Yeah, right! Most of Thomas’s life you guys hated me! I’m pretty sure you’d be just fine without me.”<br/>
Logan and Patton were shocked silent, but surprisingly Roman spoke up. “Virgil… is that truly how you feel? That we wouldn’t care if you were no longer with us?”<br/>
Now it was Virgil’s turn to be shocked silent for a moment. “I mean, yeah? Like I said, you guys did fine without me before.”<br/>
There was a silent moment before Roman responded, and Logan and Patton were respectfully staying silent. “I know I don’t always act like it, and I know I’m really not good at showing it, but Virgil, you’re part of the family, and I… really, really like having you around. The nicknames and harsh banter, I don’t mean any of that. You know I don’t mean any of that… right?”<br/>
“I mean… I do now… I knew you didn’t hate me anymore, but I thought you still didn’t like me. That’s why I didn’t want to tell you about the siphoning thing…”<br/>
“You honestly thought I didn’t like you…?”<br/>
Virgil shrugged before realizing that Roman couldn’t tell what that meant when he couldn’t see it. “Yeah…?”<br/>
“I… am so sorry that you felt like this. That I never proved it to you well enough. I mean, sure we butt heads sometimes but that doesn’t mean I don’t like you! And it’s probably my fault that you never understood that…”<br/>
“Wow. It’s… just a lot for you to admit that anything is your fault.”<br/>
“I know!” Roman sighed. “It was a lot! Did it work? Was that an okay apology?!”<br/>
“It was fine… for you.”<br/>
“Oh, come on! I’m trying!”<br/>
“Yes. Yes you are.”<br/>
“Oh, zip it! That’s just not fair!”<br/>
Virgil sighed. “Yeah, I know… Listen, can we just… both agree that we’re sorry about the whole misunderstanding and just… pretend it never happened?”<br/>
“Yeah. Let’s.”<br/>
Virgil went silent, and finally Patton spoke up. ”Are you two alright?”<br/>
“Yeah, we’re fine! Why wouldn’t we be?! We figured it out.”<br/>
“Yeah? So… you’re not… mad?”<br/>
“No, I guess not… It’s my fault it turned out like this anyway… I mean, I’ve wanted to kill myself some in the past, but I shouldn’t have actually tried it…”<br/>
“Hey! Don’t you dare talk like that! If you ever feel like that it’s because we didn’t do good enough at making you feel loved! It is not your fault you felt like that! It’s my fault you felt like this, not yours!”<br/>
“No it isn’t, Patton. This is just…” He sighed. “What I do.” The room was immediately silent. “What?”<br/>
Patton shook his head slowly. “Virgil…”<br/>
“What, guys?”<br/>
Roman spoke up. “That was dark and depressing even for you.”<br/>
Before he could answer, Logan spoke. “Virgil, you are Thomas’s anxiety. Your only purpose is to keep Thomas aware of potential danger. Self-deprecation does not aid in that at all.”<br/>
“You don’t get it, Logan! You’re logic! Everything has a reason, a purpose, everything happens for some reason with you, but that’s just not how I work! I’m Anxiety! Anxiety isn’t reasonable, okay?! It doesn’t always make sense! I’ve never been logical, Logan! I just am! I’m here and I am how I am and there’s usually no reason for how I am, it’s just who I am! It’s just what I do! Just like Roman can’t not be extravagant for two minutes and you can’t not be serious for two minutes, Logan! I just can’t not want to stop existing. Okay?!” Everyone was silent. “Look, I… I just need some time, okay?”<br/>
They were all silent for a long moment until finally Patton spoke to him softly. “If that’s what you need right now, then we’ll leave. Right Logan?” Logan nodded and after a moment they both left.<br/>
Virgil sighed and laid back down on the couch. Roman was thankfully not saying anything. So he laid there silently. He couldn’t have said how long he laid there. But he couldn’t fall back asleep. He had too much to think about. Finally he spoke. “Roman?”<br/>
“Uh, yeah?”<br/>
“How long has it been?”<br/>
“I’m gonna need you to be a little more specific.”<br/>
Virgil groaned. “I mean how long have I been out?”<br/>
“Oh. Uh… Well it was like eight-ish hours or something? And then I fell asleep for… I don’t know, a few hours? Then it was like three, four-ish hours again until you woke up? So, I don’t know… like fifteen hours maybe?”<br/>
“No! You’re kidding!”<br/>
“I mean, it was at least like twelve, I don’t know how long I was asleep.”<br/>
“No, no, no…”<br/>
“That’s bad…?”<br/>
“Yeah! That’s bad! Last time it was like seven hours, but… it’s not supposed to take this long… If it’s been over ten hours?! I should at least be able to walk! I could barely sit up on my own!”<br/>
“So, what… does that mean?”<br/>
Virgil sighed. “It just means you’re gonna have to be in there… for a while. More than a few days at least. Hopefully it’ll go faster than last time and that’ll be it…”<br/>
“Fun…”<br/>
“Yeah. And the thing is, I can’t let you out until I’m done siphoning completely, or it reverses the whole thing.”<br/>
“Okay, great. So I’m stuck-stuck in here.”<br/>
“Yeah… This whole thing would have been avoided if Patton hadn’t lost his powers.”<br/>
“Like it was his fault!”<br/>
“I never said it was his fault, I was just stating a fact!”<br/>
They were both quiet for a few minutes. “So you can’t let me out at all?”<br/>
“Nope. I mean, I can, but… it’d kill me.”<br/>
“So… If I need the bathroom, I’m just supposed to go? Cause I… may have already used your insides as a bathroom.”<br/>
Virgil snorted. “What, you’re just sitting in it? Logan used diapers.”<br/>
“He what?!”<br/>
“Yeah. He said it was better than having to sit in it. Guess you don’t mind.”<br/>
“Wait, wait, wait, we’re not turning this conversation against me, you’re saying… that Logan… like logic himself… Logan put diapers on?!”<br/>
“Yeah. I thought I was crazy when he said it.”<br/>
“And he came up with that himself?! He just decided to wear diapers!” Roman was laughing, clearly trying to contain much more hysterical laughter.<br/>
“Well, technically Patton brought it up, I told him, he agreed to it… But yeah, basically.”<br/>
“No way!” Virgil let out a chuckle, and Roman couldn’t hold back the hysterical laughter anymore. He exploded with sound, practically screaming with laughter. “Oh, that’s great!”<br/>
“Yeah, yeah, it’s funny, could you quiet down?”<br/>
It took Roman a good thirty seconds to finally force himself to stop laughing. “He’s never hearing the end of that one.”<br/>
“No he’s not. So, Roman… Do you think I was too harsh?”<br/>
“Personally, yeah, I do. But… I didn’t experience what you did, so when you’re seeing it from an outside point of view, of course it’d seem harsh… right?”<br/>
Virgil sighed. “So what you’re saying is… I definitely went too far.”<br/>
“I mean, if you want my opinion...”<br/>
“Yeah, okay.”<br/>
“It’s not like I’m a good judge for that anyway, I don’t know what they were saying, so… maybe they deserved it?”<br/>
“I don’t think so… I don’t think they were trying to argue.” They both grew awkwardly quiet. “So, uh, what were you doing the whole time?”<br/>
“What was I doing? Nothing? I played around with a few ideas, sang… a lot. There’s really not a lot to do.”<br/>
“Right. That was a stupid question. Patton just talks… a lot. And Logan was making notes the whole time, so…”<br/>
“Uh, speaking of Logan, how long has he known about this?”<br/>
“Oh, he just figured out the other day. Patton’s the only one who… well, he’s the only who knew. Before all… this happened.”<br/>
“Ah, got it. That’s what I thought, I just wanted to make sure.”<br/>
“Do you want to keep talking?”<br/>
“What?”<br/>
“That came out wrong. I just mean, if you’re talking for the sake of talking, I would really rather you not. I’ve just got a lot to think about.”<br/>
“Oh. Uh, okay…”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0004"><h2>4. Chapter Four</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Virgil closed the bathroom door behind him for the fourth time that day. “Jeez, dude, how much can one guy pee?!”<br/>	Roman gasped. “What?! How would you know how much I pee?!”<br/>	“Because you peeing in me makes me need to pee! Okay?!” <br/>Roman snorted and burst into laughter. “You’re actually serious right now?!”<br/> 	“Yes! What did you think was happening to it?!” Roman’s only answer was more laughing. “You really didn’t piece that together?”<br/>	“Well I’m not exactly a science expert.”<br/>	“That’s not science, it’s common sense!”<br/>	“Whatever.”<br/>	It had been five days since he’d been forced to swallow Roman, and Virgil felt completely new. Virgil sat up on the common area’s couch, where he’d been laying watching TV for the last hour. “Hey, mind if I grab a snack?”<br/>	Roman groaned. “Fine, but I get to choose.”<br/>	“Okay, fine.” Virgil went into the common kitchen and began rummaging through the cupboards, finally deciding on three choices. “Alright, it’s between popcorn, nachos, or M’n’Ms.”<br/>	“Uh, M’n’Ms. Chocolate smells the best.”<br/>	“Roger that, Princey.” He grabbed the bag and went back to his movie. It was one he’d seen a million times so he wasn’t really paying attention to it, he was just trying to pass the time. “Roman, I mean it this time when I say it’s gonna be today. I know I said that yesterday, but I can tell. It’s gonna be today.”<br/>	“Sure.”<br/>	“I mean it! Okay? I can tell! It’s my weirdo body; I know these things, alright?!”<br/>	“How then? How can you tell?”<br/>	“Because I can see the veining shrinking.”<br/>	“The what?!”<br/>	“The veining. I get this purple veining all over the place whenever I need to siphon. The more there is, the longer it’s been since I siphoned last. And when I’m done siphoning the veining disappears. And it always ends on my stomach, and I’ve been watching it all day — it shrunk to, like, half its size in the last two hours!”<br/>	“And right now?”<br/>	Virgil lifted his shirt and gasped. “Barely slivers left! It’s today! It’s today, and soon! In the next hour probably!”<br/>	“Really?! In the next hour?!”<br/>	“Yeah! It has to be! It’s almost gone!”<br/>	“What’s almost gone?” Virgil looked up and saw Logan standing beside the door to the hallway.<br/>	“Oh, Logan, did Patton ever explain the veining?”<br/>	“The veining…?”<br/>	“The purple veining I get when I need to siphon?”<br/>	“Oh, that, yes. Yes, he did.”<br/>	“The veining’s almost gone! I am finally almost done siphoning!”<br/>	“That’s wonderful!”<br/>	“Yeah, it is! Oh, have you seen Patton? I wanna go tell him.”<br/>	“I believe he is in his room at the moment.”<br/>	“Alright, thanks.”<br/>	Roman scoffed as Virgil headed down the hallway. “Thanks? You must be more excited than I thought to get rid of me.”<br/>	“Shut up. You know I’m just tired of babysitting you.”<br/>	Roman gasped. “Excuse me, I have been taking care of myself in here!”<br/>	“Oh, yeah. So you definitely haven’t been yelling every time I move wrong. Or every time I lay on my stomach. Or every single time I change my shirt.”<br/>	“Okay, fine, I’ve been… a slight inconvenience.”<br/>	“Oh, I wasn’t done. I hadn’t even brought up you controlling every single thing I eat.”<br/>	“Okay, that was just fair that I got a say in that! I’m the one who has to sit in it!”<br/>	Virgil ignored him, instead knocking on the door to Patton’s room once before walking in. He went to the living room, where Patton was sitting on the floor surrounded by piles of papers and junk, looking through an old photo album. “What on earth are you doing?”<br/>	Patton turned to look at him. “Oh, hey Virgil!” He had a huge smile on his face and he was blinking back tears, sniffling. “I was just… reminiscing a bit. What are you doing?”<br/>	“I’ve got good news!”<br/>	“Yeah?”<br/>	“Yeah! The siphoning’s almost done! See?!” <br/> 	He lifted his shirt and Patton grinned wide. “Almost? You might wanna get to the bathroom.”<br/>	“What?” Virgil looked down and saw that his stomach was now completely devoid of purple. And just like that, his stomach did a backflip and he shot a hand to his mouth. “Oh, man.” He gagged and his stomach lurched visibly. “Oh, not good.”<br/>	Patton shot to his feet and wrapped an arm around Virgil’s shoulders, corralling him towards the bathroom. “Are you okay? It’s not usually this bad, is it?” <br/>	He shook his head miserably. It’s never been this bad. Roman was yelling at him, and the volume was almost making it worse. “What’s going on?! What’s not good?! What’s happening?! Virgil, I’m still getting out, right?!”<br/>	Virgil bent over the sink miserably, Patton right behind him rubbing his back soothingly. “Yeah, right now.” Virgil was not going to hold back a second longer. He shoved his insides up in one swift movement and a terrible sound tore from him as his stomach’s contents splattered into the sink. He groaned and sunk to his knees, pressing both arms over his stomach and bending over.<br/>	“Roman!” Patton reached into the sink and carefully picked Roman up and set him on the floor. Roman immediately grew back to normal size and clutched his hands to his chest. “Oh, finally! I am freed from my fleshy prison!”<br/>	Virgil groaned. “Sure, I’m the one so quick to get rid of you.”<br/>	Roman rolled his eyes. “Oh, give me a break. I haven’t showered in nearly a week!”<br/>	Virgil just shook his head in response and slowly pulled himself to his feet, leaning against the sink for support. Patton rushed to help him, but he shook his head. “Just let me.”<br/>	“Sorry.” He backed up.<br/>	Virgil ignored it.  “Let’s go and leave Mr.I-Haven’t-Showered-Woe-is-Me alone.”<br/>	Patton chuckled as Roman sputtered angrily and they both left, closing and locking the door behind them. “Are you okay, Virgil?”<br/>	He nodded. “Yeah, yeah, I think I’m okay. Just gimme a few minutes and I’ll be back to normal. I don’t know what happened…”<br/>	Patton led him to the couch and they sat down. “Do you need anything? Does your stomach still hurt?”<br/>	“No, no, just… a little queasy. Most of it faded. Kinda feels like… Oh, that’s it, I’m starving!”<br/>	“Oh, well I can help!” Patton jumped to his feet. “I’ll make you something!”<br/>	“No! I-I mean, don’t… cook. Please.”<br/>	Patton laughed nervously. “That’s fair. I’ll see what I have.” He went into the kitchen and came back with a few options. Patton went to put back what Virgil didn’t want but as soon as he stepped into the kitchen he dropped it all on the counter and rushed back to Virgil. “I gotta tell Logan the news! You okay alone while I go get him?”<br/>	“I’m fine. It’s not like I’m dying, I just got hungry.”<br/>	“Okay!” Patton rushed out and returned mere moments later pulling Logan behind him. “Look!” He gestured to Virgil.<br/>	“I’m not entirely certain what it is I’m supposed to be noticing.”<br/>	“Look!” He pulled him over and bounced excitedly. “Show him, Virgil! Show him it’s gone!”<br/>	For a moment Virgil was confused, but he quickly realized Patton was talking about the veining. “Oh, that.” He lifted his shirt momentarily. “He’s talking about the veining. The veining’s gone. I… finished… siphoning.”<br/>	“Ah, then it is Roman currently in the shower?” Virgil and Patton both nodded. “That’s excellent news. That means you’re no longer ill, Virgil?”<br/>	Virgil nodded. “Yeah, I’m good. Starving. But otherwise okay.”<br/>	“There are no traces of symptoms whatsoever?”<br/>	Vigil shrugged. “Don’t think so. I feel fine.”<br/>	A few minutes later, Patton put away what Virgil hadn’t eaten and while he was coming back Roman stepped in, spinning himself into the living room. “Oh, wondrous cleanliness! My skin is shining, my hair is soft, my mouth is clean!” Sighing dramatically, he flopped onto the couch beside Virgil.<br/>	“Seriously? Was it really that bad? You could’ve told them no…”<br/>	“Of course I couldn’t! I thought we’d gone over this, we want you here!”<br/>	“No, no, I remember that… I meant you could have made them get the Duke.”<br/>	“I refuse to leave you stuck with that guy for that long!”<br/>	Virgil shrugged. “I could’a handled it…”<br/>	“Well, you shouldn’t! No one should have to be stuck with him… Anyway, it wasn’t that bad in there… But, I mean, I was… filthy. Can you really blame me for being so glad to be out?”<br/>	Logan straightened his glasses. “I personally didn’t find the process unpleasant.”<br/>	Everyone silenced, and Virgil looked at him, eyes wide. “Seriously? You didn’t hate it?”<br/>	Logan looked confused. “No? Is that unusual?”<br/>	“Uh, yeah. Yeah, that is very unusual. Why on earth wouldn’t you hate it?”<br/>	“I have no reason to. It is not physically harmful, nor mentally. If anything, it’s beneficial.”<br/>	“Beneficial…”<br/>	Roman sat straight up. “Beneficial?! How?!”<br/>	“Well, it helps me understand the differences between each one of us internally.”<br/>	Virgil nodded. “Right, I forgot, you mentioned that whole thing before… You make any progress in that thing?”<br/>	“No. Not since… not since you tried to kill yourself.”<br/>	Virgil winced. “Right…”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0005"><h2>5. Chapter Five</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>Virgil sighed into his bed. It had been six days since then, and he needed to siphon again. He had been desperately avoiding the topic altogether. He was scared of it. He was scared of the fact that the others knew. That now, every one of the other sides knew. He hated the siphoning anyway. It wasn’t something he enjoyed talking about even on the best days. But it was an unavoidable topic. He had to talk about it at some point. And that point was now. He had to tell Patton at least. Just because Logan and Roman knew about it didn’t mean he had to get them involved again. Finally, he forced himself to get up and head down the stairs sluggishly, leaning against the walls for support. He was dizzy and his vision was almost gone, so the stairs took longer than necessary, but when he finally got down, there was a knock on his door. “Coming!” It took him yet another unnecessarily long while to get to the door. But finally, he did open it.<br/>	Logan’s voice answered. “Oh. You look ill.”<br/>	Virgil shook his head. “Yeah, probably. What’s up?”<br/>	“I have a request. But first, do you know when you’ll need to siphon next?”<br/>	“Uh… what’s the request…?”<br/>	“I’m barely making progress with my studies of our differences based on Thomas’s personal views of us, so I’d like to offer myself when you need to siphon next. I never did get a chance to study digestion?”<br/>	“Oh. Uh… well… I wasn’t expecting that. Uh, I actually… need to siphon now. I was gonna go ask Patton, but…”<br/>	“If you don’t protest, then, I’d like to offer myself as siphonee.”<br/>	“Uh… okay? This is just… weird. I haven’t had someone… ask to be siphoned off of… in a long time.”<br/>	“Is that a good thing? That it’s happened again?”<br/>	“I mean, I think so, yeah. I’m not sure. It’s kinda nice.”<br/>	“Well then, shall we start?”<br/>	“Uh, yeah, right… You wanna come in?”<br/>	Logan nodded and stepped inside, closing the door behind him. “You look unsteady. Maybe you should sit down.” <br/>He nodded and managed his way to the couch in the living room. Logan followed him and immediately began shrinking. “Whoa, whoa, wait! Slow down!”<br/> 	Logan stopped at about six inches tall. “Is something the matter?”<br/>	“If you get any smaller before I pick you up I’ll end up crushing you, or dropping you, or accidentally throwing you, or who knows!”<br/>	“The likelihood of such events is-”<br/>	“I don’t care. Just… Lemme pick you up first.”<br/>	“If it truly helps you, then you have my permission.”<br/>	Virgil sighed with relief and carefully picked him up and cupped him in both hands. “Okay.”<br/>	Logan shrunk down the rest of the way, but Virgil didn’t continue. “Virgil? Are you okay? I’m prepared.”<br/>	Virgil shook his head. “Uh, yeah. This just feels really weird. I mean, I’ve never siphoned off you before. Not intentionally, like this.”<br/>	“I see. Is this a bad thing?”<br/>	“No. Just really weird.” He shrugged, then set Logan on his tongue and let him situate himself before tipping his head back and swallowing him. “Good?”<br/>	“I’m sorry?”<br/>	“Oh, right, sorry. That’s like my code word whenever I do this with Patton. It just means are you okay? You know, not freaking out, nothing broken or bruised…”<br/>	“Oh. In that case, yes, I am quite alright.”<br/>	“‘Kay. Is there any way you’d be okay with this experiment thing waiting a bit? My, uh…. My vision isn’t too hot right now.”<br/>	“I don’t quite understand what you-”<br/>	“I can’t see right. That’s what I meant.”<br/>	“Oh, of course. My studies can wait.”<br/>	“Thanks.” Virgil leaned back against the back of the couch for a few minutes, eyes closed.<br/>	A few minutes later, Virgil opened his eyes again and almost immediately his vision steadied. Way better. “Hey, I think I’m alright to get up. Does it make any difference what I eat?”<br/>	“I don’t believe it should, no. Although fruits take much less time to digest in the gastric stage than anything else if I’m remembering correctly.”<br/>	“Uh… okay? Is that good or bad?”<br/>	“Indifferent. Just a… thought spoken out loud. I apologize.”<br/>	“It’s whatever. So…” Virgil dug around in the fridge until he managed to find some leftovers to put in the microwave. “You really meant that?”<br/>	“I’m sorry? Meant what?”<br/>	“What you said. Like a week ago, when I got done siphoning last?”<br/>	“I don’t make a habit of lying, so most likely, yes. You’ll have to be more specific.”<br/>	Virgil took a deep breath. “I mean what you said about not hating the siphoning thing… I mean, this really doesn’t make you uncomfortable?”<br/>	“Not terribly, no. The only uncomfortable part about the entire process is that there isn’t necessarily the stable ground required to stand.”<br/>	Virgil laughed as he took his leftovers out and plopped down at the table. “Well, I can’t help with that. But seriously, is that it?”<br/>	“I believe so, yes.”<br/>	“I mean, the… wet? Slimy? Doesn’t bother you?”<br/>	“No, not necessarily. Not, at least, when I’m… alone, so to speak.”<br/>	“Okay? You mean like since other people can’t see you, or…?”<br/>	“Yes, precisely. It’s… not the most… attractive appearance. But so long as I’m the only one who’s seeing myself in such a state, then it can’t harm my... reputation.”<br/>	“Oh, right… Yeah, I can see how that could be a pretty embarrassing look... Logan?”<br/>	“Yes?”<br/>	“Answer me honestly, please. Just once, one question, I want a completely honest and straightforward answer.”<br/>	“I am always honest.”<br/>	“Just, promise me. Please?”<br/>	“Okay, very well. I promise. I will answer your question completely honestly.”<br/>	“Are you… disgusted by any of this? At all? Do you find any of this gross? At all?”<br/>	Logan answered immediately. “No. I don’t find any part of this process disgusting or unpleasant in any way.”<br/>	Virgil froze, a forkful stopping halfway to his mouth. He opened his mouth to speak, hesitated, closed it… His hands shook violently. “Y-You mean that?” He cursed himself internally at how his voice shook.<br/>	“Of course. I promised you complete honesty, did I not?”<br/>	Virgil shook his head and his fork hit his plate as both hands shot to his face to try to stop himself from crying. It didn’t work. “I don’t…” He gasped in a breath and sobbed it out with a quick, forced sound. “I…”<br/>	“Virgil? What’s bothering you?”<br/>	“Nothing, it’s not…” He sobbed again, laughing in the midst of it. His laughter overcame his next words, echoing out through the room.<br/>	“Virgil, I don’t understand your reaction to this…”<br/>	Virgil kept laughing. “You genuinely don’t think it’s gross!”<br/>	“No?”<br/>	“Oh gosh!” He was laughing hysterically. “Oh, man! That’s just…”<br/>	Logan remained cripplingly confused until finally, Virgil stopped laughing quite a few minutes later. “I’m sorry, I… I have never… That’s just not something I even considered could be related to siphoning… like at all…” Virgil went quiet again and Logan waited patiently for him to continue. “The Duke always… I mean, he always said he… enjoyed it, but… he liked it… because it’s… completely and utterly disgusting… I mean, he always praised how revolting it was to be siphonee… I don’t get it… I don’t…” He took a deep breath. “I don’t understand how it’s even possible for you to not… be grossed out by this at all… It’s just… I don’t know why this is so hard to grasp…”<br/>	Logan was stunned silent, realizing for the first time the true extent of Virgil’s experiences. “Um… Well, it’s difficult for you to understand because it seems your mind has never had the opportunity to link the experience with any sort of purely positive reaction. Until you came across such a reaction your mind would naturally work around the assumption that such a reaction wasn't possible, or wasn’t likely.”<br/>	“So, basically you’re saying that it’s reasonable to not… understand?”<br/>	“In my personal opinion, yes. I would say that is completely reasonable.”<br/>	Virgil nodded slowly and returned to his food. “Okay… Thanks.”<br/>	After a mere moment of silence, Logan began muttering under his breath.<br/>	Virgil silently finished his food and was just about to try to get up and put it in the sink when he heard a knock on the door. “Uh, yeah?”<br/>	“Is someone at the door?”<br/>	“Yeah. Just a sec, I’m coming!” Virgil slowly started to stand up, pausing for a moment as his vision spun wildly.<br/>	“Uh, it’s Roman! Can I just come in?”<br/>	“Oh. Yeah!”<br/>	He heard the door open and close and he took a deep breath and opened his eyes just in time to see Roman peek in, looking mildly concerned. “Hey, Ro.”<br/>	Roman’s eyes widened at seeing Virgil’s state and he rushed over. “Oh, whoa, you don’t look too great. Here, sit back down, I’ll get it.”<br/>	Virgil obeyed reluctantly. “I’m fine…”<br/>	“Clearly you’re not.” Roman brought the dishes to the kitchen and came back. “You alright?”<br/>	“Yeah, yeah, I’ll be fine. What are you doing here, anyway? You’re not usually one to come see me… on purpose…”<br/>	“Uh, yes, well… me and Patton were talking, and Patton pointed out that by now you would usually have asked for… well, help… So, I was just… making sure. That you were well... So, do you need…? I mean… you know what I’m talking about. I can go get Patton, or…”<br/>	Virgil stared pointedly at the floor. “Uh, I’m… fine, by those, uh…” He cleared his throat awkwardly. “Logan actually came and, uh… asked about it, so…”<br/>	“Oh? Like, he came… to you. And offered…” Virgil nodded. “Oh. Okay. I guess problem solved then!” Virgil nodded again. “So, like, he offered today, or yesterday, or like…?”<br/>	“Today. Like…” He glanced down at himself, then awkwardly tapped on the tabletop while he looked at everything in the room except for Roman.<br/>	Roman looked confused for a moment, then his eyes widened and his face went a little red. “Oh, damn, you mean like… now-now!”<br/>	Virgil nodded once again. “Yup… As in just started kinda now-now, so… gonna be a while if, uh… if you needed him.”<br/>	“Got it… I didn’t. Need him, I mean. Oh, I should go let Patton know. Assuming that’s allowed?”<br/>	“What? Oh, yeah, Patton can know, go for it.”<br/>	Roman winked and left for the door, but before he got there there was a knocking from the other side. “Uh, hi?”<br/>	“Oh! Roman! That’s you, right? I just came to check up on things. Is Virgil doing okay? Is he in there?”<br/>	“Uh, yeah!” Roman glanced back, and Virgil nodded, gesturing, so Roman opened the door for Patton. “He’s alright. Apparently, Logan got here before us.” Patton stepped in and glanced around.<br/>	Virgil noticed his confusion and cleared his throat, pointing to his stomach. “He, uh… he offered…”<br/>	“Oh. Well, that’s great! That means he doesn’t mind it!”<br/>	“Yeah… I guess it does…” Virgil smiled softly. <br/>	“Has Patton joined us?”<br/>	Virgil blinked. “Uh, yeah. How’d you know?”<br/>	Patton and Roman were giving him an odd look as he listened to Logan. “You said ‘he offered’ and, assuming you were talking about me, you had already explained the situation once and then mentioned Patton’s name, so I assumed that the second explanation was for him.”<br/>	“Uh… Yeah, okay. Sorry I asked.” Finally, he noticed the looks he was getting from Patton and Roman and laughed. “Oh, man! Those faces! I was just talking to Logan.”<br/>	Roman looked both offended and embarrassed, but Patton started laughing. “I didn’t even realize! I had no idea what was going on, I should have known!” Virgil shook his head and smiled, just slightly.<br/>	After a few awkward moments, Roman broke the silence. “How can you keep track of two different conversations at once? Personally, that sounds exhausting.”<br/>	Virgil was about to answer when Logan interrupted. “Virgil, if I may, I have a question about what you ate.”<br/>	“Uh… One sec, Logan.” He shook his head and turned his attention back to Roman. “I really don’t, and yeah it kinda is.”</p>
  </div></div>
<a name="section0006"><h2>6. Chapter Six</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>After that, life pretty much went on as normal. Virgil went back to asking Patton for help every few days, and Roman went back to pretending he didn’t know about the siphoning at all. The only one who purposefully mentioned it was occasionally Logan. It had been months since then, and everything was almost completely back to normal. Until today.<br/>	He had been heading back to his room and was unaware that he was being followed until Roman cleared his throat, causing him to turn around. “Um, hi. Virgil…”<br/>	He raised an eyebrow. “Uh, hi? Did you need something?”<br/>	“Uh…” He looked down, rubbing the back of his neck. “Well, I was just… wondering… Um…”<br/>	Virgil sighed impatiently. “Spit it out, Roman. If you’re not gonna talk, I’m going back to my room.”<br/>	Roman took a deep breath. “Right, right, okay… Um…” He took a deep breath again, then rushed out his next words all at once. “Iwannaoffermyselfassiphoneeifyouneedtosiphonnow.” Roman held his breath, staring nervously, biting the inside of cheeks.<br/>	Virgil blinked a few times as he registered what the words meant. “Um… okay? Is this like a dare or something?”<br/>	“No. I…” He sighed.<br/>	“Then why the hell would you willingly offer?”<br/>	“Well, I’m working on this sort of dream thing for Thomas, to help him relax after a bad day, you know? And… I wanted to… to use some… sounds… from you…”<br/>	“You want to copy sounds… that my body makes, that are only audible from… the inside?”<br/>	Roman nodded, face red from embarrassment. “Yeah, um… l-like your heartbeat? Just… a few things that Thomas has never actually heard before, so… it’s stuff that’s not in his memory, so… I can’t copy it from there…”<br/>	“Uh… ‘kay? Can’t say I’m not really weirded out right now. But, sure I guess. You, uh… you wanna go to my room for some privacy, or do you care?”<br/>	“Oh, wait, you actually need to… to siphon right now?”<br/>	Virgil pulled his jacket sleeve back to look at the veining. It was a slightly darker purple than the last time he checked it, and it was bolder and was starting to get more complex as well. He sighed. “Yeah, I should, before it gets any worse. I’m not really feeling like… weak or anything yet, but…”<br/>	Roman nodded. “Yes, of course. Best if it doesn’t get to that stage. Actually, I had a question about that. Um, how long does it take in between… siphons to get to that stage? Where you start getting… symptoms?”<br/>	“Starts on day four or five usually, sometimes earlier. By day six I start having a hard time walking and my vision starts going and all that stuff.”<br/>	“Oh, yikes. So how long was it then… I mean, when Patton lost his abilities and you… well, you remember…”<br/>	“Uh, that time it was… eight days. Yeah, eight. Eight days.”<br/>	“Oh… my. So… something as simple and short as a week without siphoning… a mere week could… could kill you…”<br/>	Virgil nodded. “Yeah, don’t remind me…”<br/>	There was a quiet moment, and then Roman gasped dramatically. “Oh my stars! So, before you came here… don’t tell me, you always had to siphon off of… The Duke?!”<br/>	“Well… not every time. Usually him, yeah, but sometimes Deceit or someone…"<br/>Roman's hand shot up to cover his mouth. "That's hardly better!" He dropped his hand from his mouth to rest over his heart. "Never again! Never again, Virgil! You have all three of us now, you'll never have to siphon off of him again! Just unacceptable! Completely unacceptable!"<br/>Virgil chuckled. "I honestly don't like him either… And the, uh… sentiment is… appreciated. But you, uh… you said all three of us… you included yourself." Virgil was expecting him to laugh maybe, to be embarrassed by his mistake, to deny that he'd made such a mistake at all, but… <br/>"Yes. I did. And I meant it. Logan certainly hasn’t shown much hesitation, since he went that one time and literally asked you to let him be siphonee. And obviously, Patton’s fine with it.”<br/>	“But you said yourself you don’t like being siphonee.”<br/>	“I admitted that I find it gross. I never said I wouldn’t help you. Besides, being disgusted for a few hours is a small price to pay for your life.”<br/>	Virgil blinked. “Oh. Uh, thanks I guess… So, uh… my room? Yours? Common area?”<br/>	Roman shook himself. “Oh! Right. Uh… I mean, after I’m… you know… in, I don’t care, but… until then, I’d prefer to be away from an audience. It’s not that I think they’d tease us or anything, I’m just a bit…”<br/>	“Embarrassed?”<br/>	“Yes! Uh, no offense intended in the slightest…”<br/>	“No, no, I’m embarrassed about it too… still. I mean, even though you three all know now, it’s just… awkward.”<br/>	“Yeah…” He cleared his throat. “So maybe one of our rooms? Mine? If that’s okay…?”<br/>	“Yeah, that’ll be fine for just… I mean, I only gotta be in there long enough to… you know…” He cleared his throat awkwardly. “Anyway. Let’s, uh…” He gestured vaguely and they both continued down the hall to Roman’s room, which they stepped into, closing the door behind them.<br/>	They stepped into the living room and stood silently, awkwardly, for a few minutes. “So, could I ask a favor?”<br/>	“Depends on the favor.”<br/>	“Once you get to like half a foot maybe, could you stop and let me pick you up before you shrink the rest?”<br/>	“Uh… I suppose so. May I ask why?”<br/>	“It just makes me really nervous to pick someone up that… small.”<br/>	“Why, are you afraid you’ll crush me or drop me or something?” Roman had been joking, but when he saw Virgil’s expression he dropped his smile. “Oh. Okay. Y-Yeah, I can do that.”<br/>	Virgil sighed. “Thanks…”<br/>	Roman nodded silently and they sunk into silence. After another moment, Roman started to very slowly shrink, watching Virgil for any kind of reaction. Virgil glanced at him but said nothing, so he continued faster. Once he was at roughly five or six inches he stopped shrinking and looked up — and oh shit Virgil was huge from this perspective — and watched a bit nervously as Virgil crouched down in front of him.<br/>	Virgil reached towards him slowly, giving him plenty of time to say no if he wanted, and scooped him up into his hands. Slowly, Virgil stood, and Roman may or may not have flinched and squeezed his eyes shut and gripped onto one of Virgil’s fingers until he’d stopped moving.<br/>	He quickly shook himself out of his fear and took a deep breath before shrinking a few more inches, settling on about two inches. Taking another deep breath, he looked up at Virgil’s humongous face and despite his efforts, he couldn’t keep his gaze from resting on Virgil’s lips. His heart was racing. He was terrified.<br/>	“Roman? Hello?” Roman blinked. “Did you hear me? I said, are you ready?”<br/>	Roman didn’t answer. No, he was not ready. He was not ready at all. He couldn’t breathe. He was terrified. He wasn’t ready. He wasn’t ready for this. Roman took a deep breath. He had to remind himself that this was safe. He couldn’t get hurt by this. He was going to be fine. It was hard to get his instincts to believe him. “Uh, yeah, I guess.”<br/>	Virgil nodded. “Alright.” Without another word for warning, he opened his mouth and slid Roman in, letting him land on his tongue.<br/>	Virgil’s eyes widened as his mind burst into… energy! His eyelids drooped against his will and his shoulders went completely limp. His head turned to the side slightly and he shifted his tongue, sending the sensation bursting anew. His lips pulled into a blissful smile. Oh, man.<br/>	He had no clue how long he’d sat there. It was probably only a few minutes, but it had felt like hours. He moved his tongue around, rolling Roman around in his mouth. The pure bliss of the sensation pulled all willpower out of him and before he had any idea he was even going to, an ecstatic hum slid from his throat.<br/>	Virgil might have screamed. He couldn’t tell. His hands both shot over his mouth and every muscle in his body was frozen in an instant. That… sound… had not just… come from… him?! That sound?! Oh, no. Oh, no. No, no, no, this was bad. This was so very bad. Before Roman could respond, he tipped his head back and swallowed him. Virgil’s mind was racing. That did not just happen. He did not just do that. No. No.<br/>	He sunk to the floor, breath racing in and out, eyes wide and hands in his hair. He couldn’t think. His mind was just so loud! He shook his head. His mind was going through every single worst-case-scenario about how Roman would respond.<br/>	He hadn’t even realized he’d been crying.<br/>	Patton must have been coming to check on Roman. That was why he’d shown up just then, even though they were in Roman’s room.<br/>	Virgil felt hands on his shoulders. There was a voice saying something. He didn’t know what they were saying. He grabbed the Side’s wrists and bunched up his shoulders, tears running down his face.<br/>	“Hey, hey, breathe for me.” Virgil pulled the hands off of his shoulders and hugged them against himself. The person attached to them crouched down, because they were suddenly the same height as him, and leaned towards him. It wasn’t a hug, since he still had the hands captive, but it was something just as meaningful. Just… leaning a little closer to him. Just being there.<br/>	At some point he had let go of the hands and the person they belonged to had moved to sit beside him and was hugging his back against their chest, running their fingers through his hair. “It’s alright. You’re okay. No one’s gonna hurt you. No one’s mad at you. No one’s mad… Virgil, are you okay?” He shook his head, trying to stop crying and even out his breathing. “Okay… okay, can you tell me what’s wrong?” He shook his head again.<br/>	He finally managed to get his breathing under control and he wiped the stickiness from the tears off his face. “I’m sorry…” His voice was a mere whisper as he pulled back and sat cross-legged in front of Patton.<br/>	“For what? Virgil, what happened? I saw that you… were going to siphon off of Roman, and I heard your little hum there, and you were makin’ a weird face, and then… you kinda screamed a bit and just broke down… What happened…?”<br/>	Virgil shook his head. “I’m sorry. I should have told you, I didn’t mean to react, I just… I wasn’t expecting… I should have told you forever ago, I’m sorry.”<br/>	Patton’s face softened and he looked at Virgil with a small, worried smile. “Told me what?”<br/>	“I can… taste things… when I do that.”<br/>	“What do you mean? Like, you can taste things any of us wouldn’t be able to?”<br/>	He nodded. “I don’t know if it’s like… personality, or like, current mood? I don’t know, it changes, it’s not always the same…”<br/>	“You’re saying you can taste our feelings?”<br/>	“No, it’s not… it doesn’t change that often… I don’t know, maybe it’s like… I can taste… who you are? Right then, like really specifically? I-I don’t know…” He took a deep, shaky breath and hid his face in his hands.<br/>	Patton gently grabbed his wrists and pulled them down to reveal red eyes and a face on the verge of tears. “Hey, it’s okay… I’m not mad at you. I’m just a little disappointed that you didn’t tell me before… Why were you scared of telling me?”<br/>	“I’m sorry!” The tears spilled over, running down his face. “I-I know, I should have told you! I should have told you when I told you about the siphoning in the first place!”<br/>	“Hey, it’s okay. I’m not mad, no one’s mad.”<br/>	“I know, I know! But…”<br/>	“I’m not upset with you. At all. I’m not, I’d just really like to know why you were scared to tell me… Can you tell me why? Please?”<br/>	Virgil took a deep breath. “Cause it’s… nasty? And really, really weird in a really not good, sick-in-the-head kinda way? Cause it’s sick and twisted and… just, wrong…”<br/>	“What makes you think that?”<br/>	“Uh…” Virgil was at a loss for words. What did he mean, what makes you think that?! Did he not just hear anything Virgil had just told him?! “What doesn’t?”<br/>	Patton smiled, chuckling a bit. “I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being able to taste who people are. That’s actually pretty cool! Like some kind of superpower!”<br/>	“And you’re not just saying what you think I wanna hear?”<br/>	Patton gasped. “Of course not! I would never lie to you like that! Ever! I really do think it’s cool!” He grinned, uttered a short, excited squeal, and clapped a few times. “I have so many questions! Oh, wait, we should tell Logan too! Uh, I mean… can we?”<br/>	“Um… I, maybe… maybe we won’t just yet…” He looked up and immediately melted at Patton’s expression. He groaned. “Oh, you’re kidding me… O-Okay, um… you’re… completely sure he won’t… freak out…?”<br/>	Patton nodded. “I’m sure! He might be kinda surprised, but there’s no reason he’d be upset about it! I wouldn’t be surprised if he starts asking questions right away!”<br/>	Virgil took a deep breath and nodded shakily. “O-Okay.”<br/>	“Hey. It’s gonna be fine! Do you want me to explain it to him first or do you wanna tell him about it yourself?”<br/>	Virgil shook his head. “No, no. I can’t…”<br/>	“Do you want me to tell him then?” He nodded. “Alright. I’ll be back in a minute, then.” Patton smiled at him. “It’s gonna be just fine, alright?” He nodded again, and Patton waved and sunk out.<br/>	Virgil watched the spot Patton had been in just moments ago, heart racing. He slowly stood up, breathing faster than normal. “Uh, V-Virgil?”<br/>	Virgil flinched. “Um, h-hi. H-Hi.” What was he gonna say? He hated him, didn’t he?! He thought he was disgusting! He thought he was perverted, didn’t he? He already thought that before he learned what the siphoning was for! Of course, Roman thought he was sick and perverted and disgusting for thinking he tasted good! What was wrong with him?!<br/>	“I was listening to, uh…” He cleared his throat. “What was… what was it that made you… break down like that?”<br/>	Virgil’s mind drew a blank. “Uh…” Roman wasn’t yelling at him. He wasn’t screaming, he didn’t sound grossed out or angry, or… or anything. He almost sounded… worried? “What?”<br/>	“What made you… freak out? Did you think we would hate you for having such an ability?”<br/>	“Uh… kinda? I mean…”<br/>	“Oh, Virgil. My friend. My buddy. Mi amigo. No, no, no. Why on earth wouldn’t we think a power like that is awesome?! It’s like… it’s like you have superpowers!”<br/>	Virgil sighed with relief. “That’s exactly what Pat said. It’s like a superpower.” He scoffed.<br/>	“It really is, though! So… basically, you can taste... who someone is? And based on your reaction, I tasted pretty great, so… that must say a lot about me as a person, huh?”<br/>	“Oh my gosh, Roman! I have never… even Thomas has never met anyone in his life even half as full of themselves as you!”<br/>	“Hey, hey now. There is a difference between being full of yourself and understanding your true value as a person. I just know my own value.”<br/>	“Sure. You keep telling yourself that.”<br/>	Roman’s response was shoved to the back of his mind as he was distracted by the door opening and Patton and Logan both walked in. Patton grinned at him. “Hey! I told him.”<br/>	Virgil found himself frozen, once again afraid that the other thought he was disgusting and sick and- “I’d very much like to know more about this added sense of taste.”<br/>	Virgil shook his head. “What? You what?”<br/>	“I’d like to know more about this particular ability of yours, given that you’re comfortable sharing?”<br/>	“Uh, yeah I guess… maybe I can go a little more into detail like… later? Or tomorrow?"<br/>"Of course. Are simple questions alright for now?"<br/>"Um… yeah, sure I guess… Just… I don't know,  just nothing too crazy."<br/>"Of course. Then for my first question, I'd like to clarify that this is the ability that you have in place of summoning objects?"<br/> 	“Yeah… Yeah, this is the… mysterious ability… not much to get excited about, huh?”<br/>	He’d meant it as a joke, but Patton apparently took it as some form of self-criticism. “Well, I think it’s an awesome ability! Just cause it’s not the same as ours doesn’t mean it’s not super cool! Right, Logan?”<br/>	“It’s certainly very interesting.”<br/>	“Wait, wait.” Virgil paused in answering them. That was Roman talking to him. “This? This is what you can do? This is your special ability that you’ve been so desperate to keep hidden from us?!”<br/>	“Uh… yeah? Is that… wrong?”<br/>	Roman burst out laughing. “Oh, man! I just can’t-! Oh man, this is what you’ve been so scared of us finding out?!”<br/>	“Yeah! What of it?”<br/>	Roman laughed some more. “Here I was thinking it was going to be something horrific! The way you hid this! Oh, man, it was just tasting some weird stuff! I actually thought were able to, I don’t know, turn into some form of horrific beast!”<br/>	“You say that like this isn’t a big deal! Telling you guys about this would have meant telling you guys about the siphoning too!”<br/>	“Why would you have to tell us about the siphoning? This ability of yours doesn’t only work when… you know… does it?”<br/>	“No! But… I couldn’t just up and tell one of you that I can taste… us!”<br/>	“Well, why not?”<br/>	His eyes widened. “You’re kidding me. Uh, maybe because you guys’d wanna how I figured it out?! What was I supposed to say then without telling you guys about the siphoning?!”<br/>	“Well, I don’t know… maybe you… accidentally licked someone?”<br/>	“Accidentally. Sure.”<br/>	“Fine then! Maybe you… just, knew?”<br/>	“Not likely. You guys wouldn’t have believed that.”<br/>	“Okay, maybe…”<br/>	“Just drop the subject! It doesn’t matter!”<br/>	“It does to me!”<br/>	“So what?!”<br/>	Roman whined dramatically. “So I need to find a reasonable explanation that you could have used!”<br/>	“No! You really don’t!”</p>
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<a name="section0007"><h2>7. Chapter Seven</h2></a>
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    <p>In the end, Roman couldn’t think of any reasonable excuse Virgil could have used. Virgil thought he was just being really dramatic and was feeling the need to prove himself perfect, like always… He was practically pissed by the time he was finally done siphoning. Virgil was ready to let him out, but Roman was spewing nonsense excuses, last-minute ideas, and he was sounding more and more desperate. “Maybe Thomas told you! Telepathically! Yeah?”<br/>	“Roman, just shut up about the stupid excuses! You all know already, okay? So just drop it! I’m letting you out!” But when he tried… “Oh, shit.”<br/>	Roman was silent for a long time. “Uh, what is it?”<br/>	“It’s not working! I can’t get you out! I-It didn’t work! It’s… it’s never not worked before. Ever!”<br/>	“It didn’t work…? Well, that’s… not good…”<br/>	Virgil was silent for a moment. “Okay, what was that?!”<br/>	“Wh-What was what…?”<br/>	“Uh, that! First of all, I just told you you’re stuck in there. Like stuck solid. Not getting out. And you just shrugged it off like I told you I was gonna trade your sneakers out for tennies.”<br/>	“W-Well, firstly, that’s not something I would take lightly! And… a-and, um…”<br/>	“That! There’s point number two! You’re stuttering! You. Roman. Are stuttering. Like, nervous stuttering, trust me I know the difference! You’re just acting really, really weird…”<br/>	“Um… w-well, maybe I just…”<br/>	“You know something! You know why I can’t get you out! That’s why you’re acting freakish!”<br/>	“Well, I didn’t-”<br/>	“You did something to me, didn’t you?”<br/>	“Not necessarily…”<br/>	“Not necessarily?! So yes! What did you do?!”<br/>	“I didn’t do anything!”<br/>	“Clearly you did!”<br/>	“I didn’t! I swear!”<br/>	“Well, someone did something! And you definitely know something!”<br/>	“W-Well, maybe, but I promise I didn’t do anything to you!”<br/>	“So now you’re openly admitting you know what’s going on! So it has to be you who did this! If you know… I mean, no one else could mess me up like this from the outside and have you know in there! So what aren’t you telling me?!”<br/>	“Nothing! I mean, okay, that’s not exactly… there is something, but…”<br/>	Virgil groaned. “But what?! You can’t just be in there forever! So if you know anything, I mean anything, about why I can’t get you out, I would suggest you spill! Now!”<br/>	“Okay! Okay, fine! Look, I really didn’t do anything to you! It’s not… you… that’s the problem.”<br/>	“Well, I believe some of that.”<br/>	“No! I mean… No one did anything to you. Literally. You haven’t changed. It’s… me. I… I can’t…” Roman half-sighed-half-whined.<br/>	Virgil recognized that sound. It wasn’t a sound they all made, but it’s the sound Roman made whenever he was embarrassed or… or scared. “Dude, what?”<br/>	“I can’t… I’m not allowed to have a bad idea.”<br/>	Virgil’s face sunk into a perfectly blank expression. “I’ve got quite a few memories that state otherwise.”<br/>	“No, no, I mean, like… I always came up with a better idea afterwards! You know, something better, to solve the same problem! I always have a better idea. But I can’t just… have a bad idea and be done with it.”<br/>	“I’m… really not following, are you just praising yourself here?”<br/>	“No! I’m not! For once, I’m not talking… good of myself, okay?! I’m trying to…” That whining sigh again, but more whine than sigh this time. He sounded on the verge of tears.<br/>	“Uh… okay…? What do you mean, you’re trying? You’re trying to...?”<br/>	Roman took a deep, shaky breath. “I’m trying to say something! Something I really don’t… Okay. Okay. I can’t just have a bad idea, without fixing it, without solving the problem, without… finding the right answer! Or…”<br/>	Virgil waited patiently. “Or…?”<br/>	“Or I… or I can’t… or I get… stuck…”<br/>	“You get stuck?”<br/>	“Yes! I get stuck! Trapped! Imprisoned in the very spot in which I came up with the atrocious failed idea in the first place! It’s like… it’s like some kind of invisible barrier keeps me unmoveable!”<br/>	Virgil’s jaw dropped. “So… so, wait, wait, wait… you’re saying that… since you can’t come up with some kind of excuse for me to use in this nonexistent scenario… until you can come up with one, you… can’t leave…”<br/>	“Yes, exactly…”</p>
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